166 



NEW ENGLAND FARIIER. 



Apkil 



SAWDUST AS A LITTER. 



) ENGTii of hair, thickress 

 /' of hide, and a great amount 

 of vital energy are con- 

 ferred upon our domestic ani- 

 mals, but it does not follow that 

 they do not need protection from 

 the weather, or that they are not 

 sensibly improved by whatever 

 tends to their comfort and contentment. 



A cow that stands upon an uneven floor, or 

 one that is too short, or whose neck is cramped 

 between stancheons that are too narrow, will 

 be in a constant state of uneasiness and dis- 

 . comfort. An ox that has labored all day, and 

 then obliged to lie upon bare planks at night, 

 with currents of cold air coming up between 

 them, will not find that rest which he would if 

 the floor were tight and well covered with 

 Bome kind of soft and clean litter. 



So swine love to wallow in the mire, but 

 that is one of the means to which they resort 

 to keep off insects, and in the end, to keep 

 the skin clean and in a healthy condition. 

 No animal, however, enjoys a clean and 

 warm bed, better than the hog, and if educated 

 properly, few animals will keep their bed more 

 clean. They will gather up the straws from 

 every corner of the room, and make up their 

 bed in a compact manner, with as much assidui- 

 ty and pains-taking, as the best chambermaid 

 in the land shows ! If the hog is a sloven, and 

 does not keep his bed-chamber clean, it is 

 more frequently to be attributed to the inat- 

 tention of the owner, than to any innate dispo- 

 sition of the animal to live in the dirt. 



Those who drive teams upon the road soon 

 become convinced that their animals will per- 

 form fifteen to twenty per cent, more labor, 

 for having well littered floors to lie upon at 

 night. 



These are some of the reasons why we can 

 profitably use sawdust as a litter. But there 

 are others. A correspondent of the Scottish 

 Farmer wrote to the editor that, from the fear 

 of introducing the Rinderpest through straw 

 brought from farms at a distance, he was in- 

 duced to litter his cows with sawdust. He 

 then incjuired what admixture would most 

 speedily decompose the sawdust, and thus im- 

 prove the manure as a fertilizer of the land ? 

 To which the editor replied : — 



"Sawdust, in its natural state, is not easily 



decomposed, but it is an excellent absorbent 

 for liquid manure, and when well soaked with 

 urine, ferments readily. It is, therefore, a 

 valuable material for bedding cattle, and no 

 dilficulty will be experienced in getting it to 

 decompose, provided it has been thoroughly 

 saturated. At one time we had the command 

 of a large quantity of sawdust, which we used 

 with great advantage as litter, and also for 

 mixing with the night soil of some extensive 

 public works, for which purpose it answered 

 admirably in every respect. It is stated by 

 chemists that sawdust, during decomposition, 

 forms certain acids, which act as excellent fix- 

 ers of ammonia, and that when well mixed 

 with dilute sulphuric acid, it is one of the best 

 materials which can be employed for fixing the 

 ammonia given off in stables." 



There are other plain reasons why we can 

 use sawdust as a litter economically. Besides 

 affording a soft bed for the animal to lie upon, 

 it is an excellent absorbent of the liquid drop- 

 pings of the stock, which are too often allowed 

 to run to waste. 



We have no doubt that a barren piece 

 of land may be brought into a high state of 

 fertility by the use of sawdust, and without 

 the application of manure. The process would 

 include a period of several years, undoubtedly, 

 but might be cheaper in the end than any 

 other, if the sawdust were abundant and near 

 at hand. It would be something as follows : — 

 Apply a dressing of sawdust in the spring, and 

 plough it in just so as to cover and mix it with 

 the sand. In mid-summer add another dress- 

 ing and plough. If weeds appear, plow again 

 in the fall. A single horse will be sufficient to 

 do the work, so that the cost of labor in apply- 

 ing the sawdust and ploughing the land will be 

 all that is invested in it, excepting interest on 

 the value of the land, — and that would go on 

 if it Avere not touched. 



In the course of two or three years, under 

 this management, weeds and grasses would 

 appear, and when they become numerous, 

 plough again, sow clover seed, and when the 

 plant is nearly ripe, plow that under. Level, 

 sow clover seed again, and so continue until 

 the land is so abundantly supplied with vege- 

 table matter as to bring any of the common 

 crops of the farm ! Then manure liberally, 

 occasionally ploughing under a crop of clover, 

 or straw of any kind, and you will have a con- 

 stantly improving soil that will continue a good 

 soil until the end of time. 



This process we have stated from our own 

 experiments in a small way, and from numer- 



